13th Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop - Nina Oram, Coirle Mooney and David Green Featured Readers & Judges

Over The Edge presents its thirteenth annual fiction slam with Featured Readers, David Green, Coirle Mooney, and Nina Oram at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway on Friday, July 15^th, 6pm. 

 

David Green is an international best-selling writer of the epic and the urban, the fantastical and the mysterious. With his character-driven dark fantasy series Empire Of Ruin, or urban fantasy noir Hell In Haven starring Haven's only supernatural PI Nick Holleran, David takes readers on emotional, character-driven, action-packed thrill rides that leaves a reader needing their next fix.Hailing from the north-west of England, David now lives in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland with his wife and train-obsessed son. When not writing, David can be found wondering why he chooses to live in, and write about, places where it constantly rains.

 

Coirle Mooney is a novelist who grew up in the Burren Perfumery in a house full of fragrant books and now lives in Kinvara, Co. Galway. After completing her MA and PhD in Medieval and Early Modern literature, she began working on a series of Medieval novels.Her debut novel, The Lady’s Keeper,set in Eleanor of Aquitaine’s court, was published by Sapere Books. Her next book,The Cloistered Lady,was published in June, 2022.Her third novel, My Lady’s Shadow, is due for publication this September. She is currently working on another novel set in Elizabethan London. She has always read widely and wrote her first murder mystery, Donald Duck is Dead, aged ten. She read Donald in instalments to her captivated (or captured) classmates. She has worked as a Shakespeare and verse-speaking tutor and as an old and middle English tutor in UCC. Her focus in on storytelling and creating characters with emotional depth.

 

Originally from the UK, Nina Oram lives in County Roscommon. Having fallen in love with County Sligo, she writes Folk Horror and Dark Fantasy inspired by mythology and ancient history, and her passion for the environment.  Nina’s YA Dark Fantasy, “The Carrowkeel Series”, set in the west of Ireland, is published with Luna Press Publishing.  Her first adult book, a Folk Horror novella, “A Face in The Leaves” wasreleased in February this year,based on the legend of the Green Man. She is currently awaiting a publication date for adark and ghostly collection of short stories. She was shortlisted in the British Fantasy Awards 2019, Best Newcomer, for the first book in the trilogy, “The Joining”. Nina won the Luna Press Publishing (UK) short story competition 2016, and was subsequently published in “Beyond Realities II”.She also won the Metamorphose short story competition 2016 in the US, and was published in “Metamorphose Volume II” and has had stories published in “The Ogham Stone”, and “Horla”, online horror magazine. She was longlisted in the Novella Award in the US, with special mention, and twice shortlisted in the Aeon Award, Ireland’s main fantasy competition, as well as for th Over The Edge New Writer of the Year award. Nina is currently finishing her first adult novel, Folk Horror, “The Crooked God”. https://ninaoram.wixsite.com/website  

The first twelve fiction writers to make it to Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on the evening of Friday, July 15^th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. If you want to be sure of a place, get there early! All participating writers should bring two pieces of their own fiction, as there are two rounds. The time limit in both rounds is FIVE MINUTES. Extracts from longer stories are admissible. Stories do not have to be memorised. The Fiction Slam will be judged by a three person jury made up of Nina Oram, Coirle Mooney, David Green and an audience member. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is a bottle of excellent red wine.

There is no entrance fee. All welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council, Poetry Ireland and Galway City Council.

June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering with American poet Susan Rich and an Evening of African Poetry

 The June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering takes place at St. Nicholas’s Church, Galway on Friday, June 24th at 6.30pm. The event will also be broadcast on Facebook live. The event features visiting American poet Susan Rich and an Evening of African poetry with Nandi Jola, Adedotun Adekeye, Bernie Crawford, & Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi.

 

Nandi Jola, a South African born poet, storyteller and playwright at Smock Alley Theatre, Rachel Baptiste 2022 programme.She was a creative writing facilitator for Ulster University's Books Beyond Boundaries NI in 2021,  Poetry Ireland in 2022. Her one woman play ‘The Journey’ opened the International Literature Festival, Dublin, in October, 2020. She represented Northern Ireland at the Transpoesie Poetry Festival in Brussels 2021 and is a commissioned poet for Poetry Jukebox, participating in 'Ambiguities', a James Joyce programme of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris 2022. She is currently studying for her MA in Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast, and her book Home is Neither Here Nor There, which is her debut poetry collection, just got published by Doire Press.

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi is a writer, performer and arts facilitator based in Wicklow. She is a commissioned poet on the Poetry as Commemoration project run by the Irish Poetry Reading Archive in UCD under the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme. Her poetry film is being screened in the ongoing Words at Wilton Park programme and is among the official selection of the 2022 Bloomsday Film Festival. She was selected for the Screen Ireland 2021 X-Pollinator Programme and her short story was longlisted for the 2020 An Post Short Story of the Year Award. Her work is widely published, notedly in The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories anthology (ed. Sinéad Gleeson). She is co-editor of Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets anthology (Dedalus Press, 2019). She is working on her debut poetry collection. Find her on Instagram/Twitter @AmadiEnyi

Adedotun Adekeye (Ade), a Nigerian that has been living in Ireland for over 14 years. He had a poem published in the first edition of Skylight 47 and was a featured reader at Over the Edge, some years ago. He is a Drama facilitator, skilled in Forum Theatre methodology and a Storyteller. He also a freelance facilitator in Development Education.

Bernie Crawford, originally from County Limerick, lives near the sea in Co Galway. Her poetry has been published in Irish and international journals and anthologies and in 2021 her first full collection, Living Water, was published by Chaffinch Press. She was the winner of New Irish Writing in the Irish Times in January 2020, the North West Words 2019 poetry competition and 2017 Poetry Ireland/Trocaire competition. She was placed second in the 2018 Blue Nib Summer Chapbook Contest and a chapbook with a selection of her poetry was published by the Blue Nib. In 2019 she was awarded a bursary by Galway County Council to work towards a debut collection. Bernie is a co-editor of the popular poetry magazine Skylight 47. She lived for many years in Lesotho and Zambia.  

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Susan Rich earned a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, a M.Ed. from Harvard University, and an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon. Rich’s poems reflect on her years lived outside the United States as an international human rights worker, as well as including a more personal focus on family and loss. Rich is the author of five books of poetry: “Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems” (Salmon, 2022), “Cloud Pharmacy” (2014), “The Alchemist’s Kitchen” (2010), “Cures Include Travel” (2006) and “The Cartographer’s Tongue / Poems of the World” (2000). Susan also co-edited the travel anthology, The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Crossing Borders (2013). Her book, “Blue Atlas”, will be published by Red Hen Press in 2024. With poet Kelli Russell Agodon, she is co-founder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women, now in its eleventh year. Susan has taught at the University of Cape Town (SA), the Antioch MFA Program, and the University of Oregon, and is currently tenured faculty at Highline College, outside Seattle.  Her work has earned awards from PEN USA, the Fullbright Foundation and the Times Literary Supplement (London). She can be found online at www.poetsusanrich.com.

 

The MC for the evening will be Kevin Higgins. There is no cover charge. All are welcome to attend. Friday, June 24^th, 6.30pm at St. Nicholas’s Church, Galway.

 

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of the Arts Council,

Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.  

Over The Edge Returns To Galway City Library After Covid!

Caoimhe May, Sinead Mears, & Morag Anderson for May Over The Edge: Open Reading

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 26^th, 6pm-7.30pm. This is a big occasion as it is the first Over The Edge: Open Reading to take place in Galway City Library since February 2020. The Featured Readers are Morag Anderson, Sinead Mears, & Caoimhe May. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. People outside Galway can still join the reading via Zoom. We hope that those who wish to will be able to read remotely at the open-mic via Zoom. The technology is a work in progress, so we ask that potential open-mic readers bear with us for what is our first post-Covid Over The Edge: Open Reading! Note the new slightly earlier 6pm start time.

For those of you attending via Zoom:  Over The Edge is inviting you to the May Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, May 26^th, 6pm-7.30pm.

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7389013549

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

Caoimhe May is a teenage writer, spoken word artist and performer in Galway. She is an avid activist who focuses on issues such as eating disorder recovery, sex positivity, and self love. Caoimhe’s writing has been published in Vox Galvia, Skylight 47 and elsewhere and she is a published children's author. 

Sinead Mears has always had a love for language. She won a National writing competition at 12 years old. She stumbled upon a Spoken Word group in Debarra’s pub in Clonakilty, Co Cork at aged 17 and partook in their Open Mics from then on. She learned a lot about life and writing from everyone I listened to. They gave her the confidence to pursue writing. Sinead then moved to Galway and studied Creative Writing at NUIG for two years. She recently took part in Susan DuMars’ writing course via GTI. Sinead has read here work at poetry readings held in Galway City and had a poem published in the Galway Advertiser’s Vox Galvia creative writing page.

Morag Anderson

Morag Anderson is a Scottish poet based in Highland Perthshire, Scotland. Her debut chapbook, Sin Is Due to Open in a Room Above Kitty’s (Fly on the Wall Press, 2021), explores human connections—concealed violence, love, and everything in between. It was a Winter 2021 Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her poetry appears in Finished Creatures, Gutter, Popshot Quarterly, Skylight 47, The Broken Spine Arts Collective, and The Scotsman as well as several anthologies, including Best Scottish Poems 2021. She collaborated on a chapbook, How Bright the Wings Drive Us, which won the Dreich Alliance Competition 2021. She was placed in the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021, the Edwin Morgan Trust Competition 2021, shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2021, and won Over the Edge New Poet 2018.She is currently working on a series of commissions by the Scottish Poetry Library.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always particularly welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. Those interested in reading at the open-mic should give their names to Kevin Higgins at Galway City Library before the reading starts at 6pm. Those who wish to read remotely should text 087-6431748 in the half hour before the reading starts; if you are texting from outside the Republic of Ireland please add the international code and knock off the first zero on the number.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland & The Arts Council.

Advanced Fiction Class DAYTIME CLASS on Zoom with Susan Millar DuMars

 STARTING EARLY JUNE Over The Edge announces DAYTIME CLASS in Advanced Fiction Writing with Susan Millar DuMars on Zoom STARTS THURSDAY June 2nd

THE CLASS TAKES PLACE on THURSDAY AFTERNOONS, 2-4pm for 6 weeks STARTING Thursday, June 2nd on Zoom. Finishes July 7^th. Maximum Number students: 5. Each student will receive close individual attention. 

Price: €150 for 6 weeks payable in advance. There are no refunds. To guarantee a place you must pay in advance. If you have been struggling with a short story or a novel, this is the class for you. 

CLASS DESCRIPTION: this class is for those serious about writing short or long fiction; those who are working on a fiction project independently and feel they need feedback and support. From week one, each student will be responsible to email an extract from their story or novel to Susan Millar DuMars and their classmates by Monday noon.  Students will also bring hard copies of the piece into class. Students can submit up to 5 double spaced pages each week. In each session we will provide feedback to each student. Susan’s feedback will be detailed as it will be based on her earlier reading of the work. Thus, each student will receive detailed feedback on a total of 30 pages of work.

The class is organised by Over The Edge literary events and will take place via Zoom at at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7389013549

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

 

ABOUT THE TUTOR: Susan Millar DuMars’ debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008. Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in April 2010. Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010. A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, American Girls, with Lapwing in 2007. She published a book of short stories in 2010: Lights in the Distance, published by Doire Press, and was the Featured Fiction writer in the American online magazine The Atticus Review. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary. Susan's third collection of poetry, The God Thing, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2013; her fourth collection, Bone Fire, was launched at the 2015 Cúirt Festival of International Literature. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003. Susan edited the anthology Over the Edge – The First Ten years, published by Salmon, which includes work by forty seven writers who have published a first book since they did a reading at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library. Susan’s New & Selected Poems was published in Spring 2019 by Salmon Poetry. In March 2020 she received a literature bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to work on her hotly anticipated forthcoming collection of short stories.

YOU CAN REGISTER ONLINE NOW FOR THE CLASS WHICH STARTS THURSDAY June 2^nd SEE HERE